Book Reviews
The God Chasers by Tommy Tenny
Shippensburg: Destiny Image, 1998
Review By Ruth A. McKeand
Some books will make you happy. Some will
encourage you. Some will challenge you. Some will make you think. Some will
even make you angry. The God Chasers
will do all these and more.
Tommy Tenney, whose pen authored The God Chasers, has spent 30 years in
the ministry. He’s seen and experienced much of God. Like King David, he has
always sought to be “a man after God’s own heart.” To Tenney, this seeking
after God’s heart is the essence of a God chaser.
The God chaser longs for deep intimacy
with God. He or she wants more than just the “stuff” of ordinary religious
experience. Tenney, like all true God chasers, has questioned why we find
entering into the desired intimacy so difficult. Why, if God is all I truly
want, am I so aware of “where He’s been” instead of being conscious of “where
He is?” And so, painting picture after picture, Tenney reveals many of the
things that get in the way of intimacy with God.
First, Tenney challenges us to ask
ourselves if we are truly seeking God. With
statements like “it’s simply not enough to know about God. We have churches
filled with people who can win Bible trivia contests but who don’t know Him,”
he invites us to look at our own walks with God. Do we realize, as Tenney did,
that “there is much more of God available than we have ever known or imagined,
but we have become so satisfied with where we are and what we have that we
don’t press in for God’s best.”
Secondly, we must honestly look at what
we’re eating each day. Tenney’s comments may anger you but he believes that
“most of us . . . keep our lives so jammed with junk food for the soul and
amusements for the flesh that we don’t know what it is to be really hungry.” He
views this daily diet of the typical believer as one of the main obstacles to
intimacy with the Almighty for most of us. He sees too many of us being more
concerned with our own comfort, and that of our families, and all the things we
want (or have) to do, that God gets precious little of our attention. When we
do come before Him, our minds are preoccupied with the cares of this life. He
points out that “we’re happy with our music the way it is” and we’re content
with services designed for pleasing men “instead of yielding to what God
likes.” We want the stuff that God can give us, without the commitment and
intimacy of union with Him. But Tenney calls us repeatedly back to the desire
of the God chaser. The true God chaser wants to see His face, just as did Moses
and the Apostle John.
Most of us want revival today. We truly
believe we want God to be real to us and in us. But Tenney calls us to pause
and think. There’s more to this relationship with God than getting the stuff.
The first step to real, personal revival, according to Rev. Tenney, “is to
recognize that you are in a state of decline.” Recognizing our true state will
birth a “divine discontent” in us, out of which real hunger for God will grow.
Tenney contends that most of us have
“become addicted to the anointing, the relayed word of good preaching and
teaching,” preferring for someone else to go up the mountain to seek God for
us. Like Israel of old, we prefer “distant respect” over “intimate
relationship” with the Almighty. We seek revival instead of the Reviver just as
we so easily fall into the selfish trap of seeking the gifts instead of the
Giver.
Tenney points out that “there is
something in us that makes us afraid of the commitment that comes with real
intimacy with God.” One reason, he says, is that “intimacy with God requires
purity.” In this hour “God is calling people who want serious revival into a
place of transparent purity. It’s you who He’s after.” This kind of purity
requires death and that is the greatest barrier of all that the believer faces.
We all fear death, but to see God’s face, one must die. No one can see God’s
face and live according to Scripture.
“It is God’s mercy that keeps Him away
from us,” Tenney says. We are sinful flesh and He is absolute holiness and
purity. The latter will destroy the former if, and when, it comes into its
presence. But be encouraged. There is hope. Through “repentance and
brokenness—the New Testament equivalent of death,” we can become “dead men
walking.” And dead men can enter the presence of God without fear. Brother
Tenney urges us not to shrink back from the altar upon which God would have us
sacrifice our egos. Instead he provokes us to embrace death of self and to see
it as the only way we can truly see God’s face.
The God chaser is after God Himself. Many
know about God. He’s everywhere all the time. That’s His omnipresence. But,
Tenney declares, “There are also times when He concentrates the very essence of
His being into what many call ‘the manifest presence of God.’” That’s the
deepest desire of the God chaser, the manifest presence of God! For this, he is
very willing to die! But first we must admit our need and our hunger. That’s
what God is looking for. It’s in this state of brokenness, repentance, and
hunger that God can come with His presence and His power and begin to really
change us. It’s admitting our need and our hunger, and then seeing our true
state, which brings the brokenness and repentance that opens the door for God
“to take us through the complete process . . . without hindering or quenching
His Spirit, then when the kabod, the weighty presence of God, comes among us
and upon us, then we will be able to carry it without fear because we will be
walking in the purity of Jesus and our flesh will be dead, covered by the blood
of the Lamb.”
Tenney believes the world cannot be
changed until God is freely allowed to change each of us. We can truly touch
our world as witnesses and evangelists only when we engage in what Tenney calls
“presence evangelism.” He believes God can, and will, change us as we
experience His presence because experiencing “God’s glory is life-changing. It
is the most habit-forming experience a human being can have, and the only side
effect is death to the flesh.” This prepares us for God’s true purpose,
evangelism. But the evangelism that Tenney looks for in the church is “when the
residue of God on a person creates a divine radiation zone of the manifest
presence of God, so much so that it affects those around you.” This type of
evangelism is not “an emotional encounter with man but a death encounter with
the glory and presence of God Himself.”
“It is time for God’s people to get
desperately hungry after Him,” says Tenney, “because the fires of revival must
first ignite the Church before its flames can spread to the streets.” But he
warns, “Supernatural things . . . will
happen to you too, but it only comes one way. There is no shortcut to revival
or the coming of His presence. God’s glory only comes when repentance and
brokenness drive you to your knees, because His presence requires purity.” It’s
only when we candidly look into our own hearts that we, like the prodigal son,
see there the deep “poverty of heart.” It is this revelation that will propel
us back to the Father’s arms. And once there we will see His face, sense His
power, and experience His presence. It’s there, in the arms of Love Himself,
the God chaser finds true happiness and a joy unspeakable and full of glory!
It’s there that the God chaser finds that he’s been caught by the very One he’s
been chasing all along! And that’s the purpose of this book by Tommy Tenney . .
. to whet our appetites and change each of us into a God chaser so we too can
get caught by the One Who’s caught him!
Primary
Purpose by Ted Haggard
Orlando: Creation House, 1995
Reviewed by Tony Peter
Primary Purpose is a practical book on winning souls for the kingdom of God, especially from a pastoral point of view. Founder and senior pastor of the 6000 member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Ted Haggard is a graduate of Oral Roberts University and has co-authored with Jack Hayford a similar book called Loving your City into the Kingdom.
Ted Haggard writes with a pastor’s heart and a passion for winning souls to Christ in practical, relevant ways. His book includes charts and diagrams as well as practical stories.
The book is focused on three foundations for any attempt to win the lost for Christ and to grow the church. The first is prayer; all kinds of prayer. The second is keeping focused on the task of evangelism; all kinds of evangelism. The third is unity between individuals and the churches.
Haggard begins the book by giving a short testimony of the beginnings of his New Life Church in Colorado Springs. He describes the difficulties and the challenges in starting a new church in an area once known as a difficult place to successfully start and continue a work for the Lord. He describes not only his struggles in starting his church but also in continuing to keep his church on track for the primary purpose of winning the community and city to Christ.
The second part of the book deals with what he calls five principles of keeping your church on the primary purpose. The first principle is that of focusing on the absolutes of Scripture and not side tangents such as different doctrinal issues between individuals and churches.
The second principle is to promote Christ and his Word, not you or your own ideas. This is the key to reaching the lost. Haggard laments that too many individuals and churches focus on winning other Christians from other churches through transfer growth rather than focusing on winning the lost through conversion growth.
The Third principle is to pray for the Holy Spirit’s activity in your area. Haggard describes this as increasing the presence and work of the Holy Spirit in the area where you want to win the lost. This changes the climate of the area to open the way to win souls for the Lord.
The fourth principle is to appreciate and respect one another’s interpretations of Scripture. Different churches interpret Scripture differently and act accordingly. As long as they do not transgress the fundamentals of Scripture they will appeal to different people from all walks of life that become saved and then attend a church that will suit them. Divisions or conflict between churches can stifle the Holy Spirit and stop evangelism.
The fifth principle is honouring others through supportive speech and actions. Haggard explains that this is another way of maintaining unity in the body of Christ between the churches.
The third and last part of the book focuses on the lifestyle, character and fruit of Christians and churches in relationship to evangelism. Haggard explains that it is the church’s function to live as the Bible calls us to live. Then we shall see the fruit of this lifestyle, namely souls won for Christ and churches growing.
Haggard describes the Christian lifestyle as continuous spiritual warfare. Only through a righteous lifestyle can the believer and the church truly advance the Kingdom of God as we are supposed to.
This is a practical, thorough book on evangelism from a pastor’s point of view rather than an evangelist’s point of view. Ted Haggard writes with a passion not only to see souls saved and churches grow but to see the whole community, city and nation changed. The book is a vital manual for any Christian wanting to start a new work or church in any part of the world.
The stories and principles make it a great book for anyone, especially pastors, wanting to reach people with the gospel. This book focuses on proven strategies for the advancing the Kingdom of God today. Essential strategies include prayer warfare, unity between believers and churches, and focusing on the primary mission of the church, evangelism.
This book is one of the best I have read concerning winning souls, communities and cities to Christ through a pastor’s heart for people and not just as a quest for numbers. It shows that whole communities and cities can be won for the Lord and that God wants more of his children to step out in faith with love for the lost.
©
Renewal Journal #14: Anointing
Reproduction
is permitted as long as the copyright information is intact with the text.